my wife and i wanted something different last night and i suggested the new elephant walk in porter sq. which just opened last weekend. we were fans of the union sq place and were looking forward to seeing the new one. they took over from finnigan's wake in the henderson carriage building. it is much larger with first floor tables and the basement room (which we didn't see) which has function rooms too. it is on mass ave. a few blocks from the porter stop on the red line with plenty of free parking out back. the decor is nice with a very large bas relief sculpture (i don't know what else to call it) elephant on the back wall. the building has high ceilings and feels much nicer that the claustrophobic basement in union sq. the noise level was much lower for similar reasons. the boring stairs to the basement were replaced by an elegant curved staircase. they did a full gut and rebuild so it looks nothing like finnigan's. one minor but important change is that you have to enter from mass. ave. the rear door onto the parking lot is for exiting only. onto the food: we decided not to order our favorite appetizer na taing but if you haven't had that, get it. i started with the cream of portobello soup and she had the salad verte. the soup was delicious without being heavy or too creamy. it had a distinct asian touch to the flavoring. it came in a monstrous sized bowl but was a normal sized serving which made for an interesting presentation. we then had a pair of beef skewers (i forget the name) that were very tasty and came with some nice lightly pickled veggies. my wife had a delicious french entree of chicken breasts stuffed with ham and cheese and rolled in nuts. i had amok royale which is a pudding or a very thick stew of seafood cooked in a banana leaf bowl. it was almost solid seafood (scallops, other fish) with a medium spicy sauce that was devine. i turned it over onto my rice and mixed it a little and enjoyed every morsel. for desert she had a complex geometric combination of chocolate and raspberry mousses that needed a civil engineer to build. i had a combination of banana wrapped in phyllo and crushed cashews. both were outstanding. i still have a portion of my dessert at home waiting for me! even better, we were comped for dessert. why, i am not sure but who cares! the service was very good and our waitress was helpful and knowledgable. they are open for dinner 6 nights (exc sun) and will be aiming for 7 dinners and 6 lunches soon. prices are similar to what they were and our meal was about $60 with tax, tip, no alcohol and free dessert. we had a chance to chat with robert perry (i think that is his correct name), one of the owners. he remembered us as early regulars at the union sq. place. he told us about the flood there and it was a wild story. back in june when we had the monster rainstorm, water started flowing down the outside stairs. as it built up to several feet behind the glass doors, they had everyone leave and soon after that both doors blew in with a crash. they had 4 feet of water in the restaurant and lost everything and they had no flood insurance! he said it was just like titanic! i think they will do very well with the increase in size, better location, free parking, etc. now they are even closer to us in east arlington we will definitely go there more often. uri
Boston, MA